► The relationship between an artwork and the language used to describe its meaning or justify its importance is tenuous at best. Interpretation and translation transcribe…
(more)

▼ The relationship between an artwork and the language
used to describe its meaning or justify its importance is tenuous
at best. Interpretation and translation transcribe information in
an endless mutation. This written work is an impaired attempt to
express oneself in words. As any language will either not suffice
or will provide only an alternative version of what was meant, here
the core concerns of a particular body of artwork have been written
out in a foreign language. – A thought is initiated and it is
translated into language. A thought is initiated and it is
translated into an artwork. A work of art is made and it is
translated into words. The human mind exhibits the capacity to
direct itself at an outside world, to express itself and to
communicate, but the problem of translating what is internal lies
at the core of existence. The resulting text, originally attempted
in Spanish, has been translated into English for your further
interpretation.
Advisors/Committee Members: Stark, Frances (Committee Chair), [illegible] (Committee Member), [illegible] (Committee Member).

► There are infinite permutations to make sense of the gaps between perception, communication and materiality; the problem and solution that is representation. This paper aims…
(more)

▼ There are infinite permutations to make sense of the
gaps between perception, communication and materiality; the problem
and solution that is representation. This paper aims to investigate
how drawing can be traced in relationship to these issues, looking
particularly at a recent history in which process was elevated in
relevance to the making of work; the arguable cusp between
modernism and post-modernism, and the resulting influence on
contemporary drawing, now.
Advisors/Committee Members: White, Charles (Committee Chair), Stark, Frances (Committee Member), Benning, Sadie (Committee Member), Pesenti, Allegra (Committee Member).

► “Un chant d’Amour” or “A Song of Love” is Jean Genet’s only cinematic work, both written and directed by him in 1950. This twenty five…
(more)

▼ “Un chant d’Amour” or “A Song of Love” is Jean Genet’s
only cinematic work, both written and directed by him in 1950. This
twenty five minute long silent film, as the only exhibited work by
Genet in the realm of the visual, provides us with a key into
reading his literary works. However, besides a book by Jane Giles
on Genet’s cinema i.e. “Un Chant d’Amour”, there are no more than a
few pages in numerous books, sentences, paragraphs, allusions and
quick references in essays most of which referencing some of the
film’s iconic scenes as a “visual counterpart” to what is being
described in words. ❧ This paper is intended to give an analytical
yet subjective reading of the spatial and temporal experience of
the film through its erotics. With regards to the title of the
film, “A Song of Love” or “A Love Song”, the essay also attempts to
locate this underground film from the 1950’s in relationship to our
contemporary notions of a “love song” to somehow historicize this
reading.
Advisors/Committee Members: White, Charles (Committee Chair), Stark, Frances (Committee Member), Holte, Michael Ned (Committee Member).

► This thesis takes a personal narrative as a thread in an investigation into rococo painter Jean Honore Fragonard and Swiss writer Robert Walser's work. It…
(more)

▼ This thesis takes a personal narrative as a thread in
an investigation into rococo painter Jean Honore Fragonard and
Swiss writer Robert Walser's work. It focuses on the role of
posture and code of conduct in urban societies and the benefits of
confusion and abandonment of 'straightness'.
Advisors/Committee Members: Stark, Frances (Committee Chair), Steiner, A.L. (Committee Member), Lapinski, Lisa (Committee Member).

► This thesis—the first two chapters of a novel in progress—concerns the idea of the crime of information. Utilizing parallel and eventually intersecting stories (of a…
(more)

▼ This thesis—the first two chapters of a novel in
progress—concerns the idea of the crime of information. Utilizing
parallel and eventually intersecting stories (of a young professor
in therapy and his rather unfortunate cohort and the pair of
blackmailers who attempt to extort them all) the story alludes to
but ultimately evades outright revelation, mirroring, perhaps, this
potential in one’s other relationships with various modes of
information-reception.
Advisors/Committee Members: Stark, Frances (Committee Chair), Steiner, A.L. (Committee Member), Tongson, Karen (Committee Member).

► This thesis attempts to trace influences upon my practice through the works of four other men: two photographers, a performance artist, and a writer. The…
(more)

▼ This thesis attempts to trace influences upon my
practice through the works of four other men: two photographers, a
performance artist, and a writer. The ideas and works I present are
not direct precursors to my own, but serve as various poles of
interest around which much of my work has either revolved around,
or been attracted to.
Advisors/Committee Members: Fine, Jud (Committee Chair), Stark, Frances (Committee Member), Hainley, Bruce (Committee Member).

Tam, K. (2010). Disappearing in plain sight, or, How we used to have casual
sex before craigslist. (Thesis). University of Southern California. Retrieved from http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll127/id/381591/rec/2017

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Tam, Kenneth. “Disappearing in plain sight, or, How we used to have casual
sex before craigslist.” 2010. Thesis, University of Southern California. Accessed May 25, 2019.
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll127/id/381591/rec/2017.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

MLA Handbook (7th Edition):

Tam, Kenneth. “Disappearing in plain sight, or, How we used to have casual
sex before craigslist.” 2010. Web. 25 May 2019.

Vancouver:

Tam K. Disappearing in plain sight, or, How we used to have casual
sex before craigslist. [Internet] [Thesis]. University of Southern California; 2010. [cited 2019 May 25].
Available from: http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll127/id/381591/rec/2017.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Council of Science Editors:

Tam K. Disappearing in plain sight, or, How we used to have casual
sex before craigslist. [Thesis]. University of Southern California; 2010. Available from: http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll127/id/381591/rec/2017

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

► An analysis of the crisis of private autonomy, the notion of the multitude, and the transition from a disciplinary society to a society of control,…
(more)

▼ An analysis of the crisis of private autonomy, the
notion of the multitude, and the transition from a disciplinary
society to a society of control, this text proposes a critical
sketch of the contemporary background to art and cultural
production.
Advisors/Committee Members: Stark, Frances (Committee Chair), Tumlir, Jan (Committee Member), White, Charlie (Committee Member), Bailey, Stuart (Committee Member).

► As Modernism began in the latter part of the 19th century, painters increasingly brought the deep pictorial space of the easel painting closer to the…
(more)

▼ As Modernism began in the latter part of the 19th
century, painters increasingly brought the deep pictorial space of
the easel painting closer to the surface, and thereby to the
viewer. By the end of Modernism, painting came to be understood as
an object on the wall rather than a receding opening behind or
within it. As a result of this spatial movement, frames
dramatically changed in use and appearance, but 'framing' work
remained important. Starting with the Impressionists, painters
began experimenting with frames designed to extend and fuse with
the picture plane - not merely to enshrine and harness a captured
virtual space. My thesis examines the development of theoretical
and symbolic uses of framing devices, primarily focusing on two
works: Georges Seurat's La Grande Jatte - 1884 and Eva Hesse's Hang
Up from 1966, both from the collection of the Art Institute of
Chicago.
Advisors/Committee Members: Stark, Frances (Committee Chair), Fine, Jud (Committee Member), Hainley, Bruce (Committee Member).

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

MLA Handbook (7th Edition):

Molzan, Dianna Lea. “How the frame was one.” 2009. Web. 25 May 2019.

Vancouver:

Molzan DL. How the frame was one. [Internet] [Thesis]. University of Southern California; 2009. [cited 2019 May 25].
Available from: http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll127/id/172010/rec/3262.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Council of Science Editors:

Molzan DL. How the frame was one. [Thesis]. University of Southern California; 2009. Available from: http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll127/id/172010/rec/3262

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

► This paper should function, formally speaking, as an analog to the approach I take in producing art, which is to say that something that might…
(more)

▼ This paper should function, formally speaking, as an
analog to the approach I take in producing art, which is to say
that something that might resemble a thesis or ideological
proposition is not explicitly stated, but must be extrapolated from
fragments layered upon each other within arbitrary limits. This
approach allows the ideas put forth to be imbued with the
anxieties, doubts and contradictions that characterize unedited
thought. A sense of time and inexhaustibility of content is to be
conveyed through an accumulative and meandering process, hence the
lack of a real beginning or end.
Advisors/Committee Members: Stark, Frances (Committee Chair), Fine, Jud (Committee Member), Tumlir, Jan (Committee Member).

► This paper addresses the nature of photographic perception. I discuss the work of Magritte and the theory of indexicality as initially proposed by Roland Barthes…
(more)

▼ This paper addresses the nature of photographic
perception. I discuss the work of Magritte and the theory of
indexicality as initially proposed by Roland Barthes and Rosalind
Krauss. In On Places, Photographs and Memory, I reflect upon the
relationship between photographs and memory and the limitations to
objectivity inherent to the medium. In The Language of
Representation, I discuss the work and words of artist Clifford
Ross, the exhibition Actual Size by Michael Heizer, the way that
photographs are talked about, and what that says about the way that
photographs are thought about. In Metzker’s Composites, I discuss
how Ray Metzker used the ambiguity of the relationship between
photography and the real to produce a compelling body of work.
Finally, in Changing Perceptions, I attempt to complicate, revise
and apply the theory of indexicality in the context of the digital
and contemporary visual culture. In the Appendix I discuss two of
the images in my MFA thesis exhibition that relate to the themes of
this text.
Advisors/Committee Members: Fine, Jud (Committee Chair), Stark, Frances (Committee Member), Ebner, Shannon (Committee Member).

► This dissertation examines historical recurrences of antipathies towards image making that have fueled many of the most important currents in art for the past century.…
(more)

▼ This dissertation examines historical recurrences of
antipathies towards image making that have fueled many of the most
important currents in art for the past century. The Russian
Avant-Garde, Modernism, and Conceptualism are a few of the most
important drives in 20th Century art that have sought to excise
representation as dominant modes. Artistic movements away from
representation have most often been discussed as motivated by art’s
own evolution; however, there are notable external parallels. These
art-historical trends will be presented against the backdrop of
historical iconoclastic movements, emphasizing political and
religious motivations. Through vandalism, art has been the subject
of attacks that emphasize the potency of offending images. More
interestingly, dogmatic policy for or against the creation of
imagery offers insight into the anxieties surrounding
representation. This paper will explore the ways these deeply
ingrained conflicts have incited work that grapples with
representational conventions in the pursuit of the
un-representable
Advisors/Committee Members: Fine, Jud (Committee Chair), Stark, Frances (Committee Member), Tumlir, Jan (Committee Member).

► Whips differ in lengths, materials, flexibility and sophistication depending on region and purpose. Uses of the whip vary throughout history and contemporary culture. Dormant, the…
(more)

▼ Whips differ in lengths, materials, flexibility and
sophistication depending on region and purpose. Uses of the whip
vary throughout history and contemporary culture. Dormant, the whip
may appear to be a taper cross-braided leather strand often
associated with fetish, bondage, dominance, sadomasochism, torture,
and animal control. Within the culture of whips there is a divide
between “pain-making” whips and “noise making” whips. This paper
will discuss the Western bullwhip, a noise-making whip, and
articulations of the sound it creates in relation to my thesis
exhibition Six Paintings and a Whip.
Advisors/Committee Members: Stark, Frances (Committee Chair), Hainley, Bruce (Committee Member), Steiner, A.L. (Committee Member).

Foley, E. L. (2012). Six paintings and a whip. (Masters Thesis). University of Southern California. Retrieved from http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll3/id/83802/rec/5875

► This paper traces research conducted at, and collaborative projects initiated with, ONE National LGBT Archives over the course of two years while I was a…
(more)

▼ This paper traces research conducted at, and
collaborative projects initiated with, ONE National LGBT Archives
over the course of two years while I was a graduate student at
University of SouthernCalifornia (USC). Through a descriptive
account of my cumulative findings I hope to provide an entry point
for readers into the curatorial project and explorative art
exhibition, My Taste in Men, which was held at The Gayle and Ed
Roski Master of Fine Arts Gallery, Los Angeles, March 21-25, 2011.
The project was shaped through the lens of taste, my position as a
lesbian feminist and curatorial author, and the conditions of
representation in the holdings of ONE Archives. As such I propose
that queerness is a shadow in the predominantly gay white male
narrative of recorded LGBT histories.
Advisors/Committee Members: Stark, Frances (Committee Chair), White, Charlie (Committee Member), Hainley, Bruce (Committee Member).

Hogan-Finlay, O. (2011). Enduring value: framing the specter of queerness in the
archives. (Thesis). University of Southern California. Retrieved from http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll127/id/653211/rec/2345

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Hogan-Finlay, Onya. “Enduring value: framing the specter of queerness in the
archives.” 2011. Thesis, University of Southern California. Accessed May 25, 2019.
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll127/id/653211/rec/2345.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Hogan-Finlay O. Enduring value: framing the specter of queerness in the
archives. [Internet] [Thesis]. University of Southern California; 2011. [cited 2019 May 25].
Available from: http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll127/id/653211/rec/2345.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Council of Science Editors:

Hogan-Finlay O. Enduring value: framing the specter of queerness in the
archives. [Thesis]. University of Southern California; 2011. Available from: http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll127/id/653211/rec/2345

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

► This text is a poetic analysis that explores concepts of diffusion, dissolution, and limitlessness. In this text, the condition of the self is considered as…
(more)

▼ This text is a poetic analysis that explores concepts
of diffusion, dissolution, and limitlessness. In this text, the
condition of the self is considered as a state of remoteness and
the presence of an absence. Guided by Roland Barthes’ notion of
NVS – le non vouloir -saisir (the non-will-to possess) which is
introduced in the final chapter Sobria Ebrietas in A Lover’s
Discourse, this text parallels the process of (self) affirmation
with the process of the subject disintegrating into the world of
things. This imagined condition is further informed by Jean -Paul
Sartre’s notion of Viscosity in which the self experiences a threat
of dissolution while in a state of flux. Applying these two models,
the notion of the self as an autonomous and self-reliant subject is
undone, presenting instead a self that is an indefinite figure
which perpetually seeks meaning through an insatiable process of
appropriation.
Advisors/Committee Members: Stark, Frances (Committee Chair), Hainley, Bruce (Committee Member), Lockhart, Sharon (Committee Member).

► This thesis will look primarily at Jay DeFeo’s The Rose as an opening to examine how one artwork can address multiple concerns including the economy…
(more)

▼ This thesis will look primarily at Jay DeFeo’s The
Rose as an opening to examine how one artwork can address multiple
concerns including the economy of art, gender and the artist’s
studio, the act of looking and the way an artist’s story can become
inseparable from her work. I will also look to Robert Walser’s
miniscule writing, as an unlikely companion, to examine how
biography embeds itself into the reading of his
Microscripts.
Advisors/Committee Members: Stark, Frances (Committee Chair), Fine, Jud (Committee Member), Owens, Laura (Committee Member).

► May 1973, I buy a camera, I want to start filming by myself and for myself. Professional cinema does no longer attract me. To look…
(more)

▼ May 1973, I buy a camera, I want to start filming by
myself and for myself. Professional cinema does no longer attract
me. To look for something else, I want to approach the everyday,
above all, in anonymity. It takes time to learn how to do it. ❧
This is how David Perlov’s six hour film Diary starts, it ends in
1983. The film depicts a portrait of the artist and his family in
Tel Aviv where he lives, in Sao Paolo where he grew up, and in
Paris where he got his cultural and cinema education during his
20s. ❧ Throughout this time Perlov’s two twin daughters get drafted
to the army, major governmental changes happens and two wars erupt.
Perlov surveys the world from his very ordinary point of view,
searching for information from the windows that surround him:
photographing his loved ones change, filming his television,
obsessively looking at the street out his window and trying to
understand subtle transformations. Perlov becomes no more than a
viewer of the world, he situates himself almost as a victim of time
and circumstance. ❧ The Diary is a result of a crisis. A crisis
that is a combination of personal depression, dissatisfaction with
his love for cinema and a real difficulty to integrate into Israeli
society especially with its problematic political reality. ❧ Less
then a minute into the film, the camera finds Naomi, his daughter,
inviting him to join her for a soup; Perlov’s voiceover says, "The
warm soup is tempting but I know I must choose, from now on to eat
the soup or to film the soup". This is the decision that Perlov
makes. From this moment on, his life becomes his work of art. All
separations between personal life, politics and art fall. The
cinema that he had grown up with, its sets and plots lose all
relevance. The more he can exclude the cinematic event the more the
work becomes about being.
Advisors/Committee Members: Lockhart, Sharon (Committee Chair), Stark, Frances (Committee Member), Flick, Robbert (Committee Member).

Zemer, B. (2013). The politics of David Perlov’s camera. (Thesis). University of Southern California. Retrieved from http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll3/id/315335/rec/7094

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Zemer B. The politics of David Perlov’s camera. [Internet] [Thesis]. University of Southern California; 2013. [cited 2019 May 25].
Available from: http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll3/id/315335/rec/7094.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Council of Science Editors:

Zemer B. The politics of David Perlov’s camera. [Thesis]. University of Southern California; 2013. Available from: http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll3/id/315335/rec/7094

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

► We don't know what we don't know. How could we possibly know what is possible if knowledge may be impossible. Flux is fundamental. All attempts…
(more)

▼ We don't know what we don't know. How could we
possibly know what is possible if knowledge may be impossible. Flux
is fundamental. All attempts at denial end in dust, or very small
particles of stone. There are those among us who have destroyed
themselves willfully, those who have passively let themselves be
destroyed, those who have accepted unusual risk in order to achieve
their aims, those who have fought desperately to crumble the
foundations of their own psyche, those who have pointed to the
possibility of preservation as ideology instead of instinct. If you
and I together press our bodies hard against the world, then we may
make it move. Even only inches from where it was will be enough. It
will never again have not been moved. The moment is pregnant with
potential and all things that protrude from the surface of a stream
produce a wake.
Advisors/Committee Members: Stark, Frances (Committee Chair), [illegible], William E. (Committee Member), Zittel, Andrea (Committee Member).

► This thesis is a series of discrete writings, which address different aspects of my work and the different contexts in which it operates. The thesis…
(more)

▼ This thesis is a series of discrete writings, which
address different aspects of my work and the different contexts in
which it operates. The thesis consists of five chapters. The first
is a proposal for a show of furniture. The second is about the role
of fruit in my work and a larger art historical context. The third
chapter is about decoration and functionalist design. The fourth
chapter is about concrete. The final chapter considers the use of
the term deskilling in economics and art, specifically as it
applies to my thesis exhibition.
Advisors/Committee Members: Zittel, Andrea (Committee Chair), Stark, Frances (Committee Member), White, Charlie (Committee Member).

Beal, J. (2007). Title in caps and double spaced. (Thesis). University of Southern California. Retrieved from http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll127/id/520720/rec/7486

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

► This thesis explores human skin, the architecture of a space, concepts of a community and the constant ticking of a clock as mediums of "containment".…
(more)

▼ This thesis explores human skin, the architecture of a
space, concepts of a community and the constant ticking of a clock
as mediums of "containment". The seminal questions asked are: what
are these constructs we are either born with (as with our own
physical body), we create (the architecture of a space or
community) or abide by (the chronology of time) and how accurate
are they in truly holding, preserving, and documenting? Ultimately,
my interest is in what happens to the narrative when it is not
"contained" and seeps out of the structure. Utilizing various
tropes of writing styles, this thesis attempts to speak about the
concept of structural narrative via the context it is
presented.
Advisors/Committee Members: White, Charles (Committee Chair), Weisberg, Ruth (Committee Member), Stark, Frances (Committee Member), Subotnick, Ali (Committee Member).

► Although not immediately apparent, the structure of this thesis is based on some of the core notions of my art practice. My main goal is…
(more)

▼ Although not immediately apparent, the structure of
this thesis is based on some of the core notions of my art
practice. My main goal is to redeem Lisa Nowak, the defamed
astronaut, while inserting a somewhat personal discussion regarding
domesticity with feminist underpinnings. The relationships between
Lisa, the fluff and myself are not always linear and recognizable;
the delineations of positions become entangled and
non-hierarchical. This is much like the complicated relationship
between the analyst and analysand, perhaps in a state of
"hysteria"; with the fluff being object of fixation, or possibly,
just the fix. It seems to be much like the problematic relationship
between Lisa Nowak, William Oefelein and Colleen Shipman. I like to
think of the fluff as an emulsion, and Lisa as the primer. The
thesis is executed in a way that, much like looking at a painting
or sculptural object, there is a focus on precise details and being
completely engrossed, while simultaneously hovering as if the
vantage point is from a far distance. Subsequently, the emerging
image of the triangle is repeated throughout the thesis, as well as
perceptual investigations. There are many embedded theories that
remain of great interest for me as well, such as, abstraction,
philosophy and psychology. This thesis is a good excuse to explore
them more thoroughly in the name of fluff and Lisa Nowak. Both the
fluff and Lisa become vehicles in order to explore the ideas of
crossing boundaries and seeking new territories. With the excess of
information that has subsumed our everyday lives in a Post-Modern
era, the question as to where the location of a new topography
exists. Contrary to a contemporary discussion of exhaustion within
culture, this thesis also asserts that the sources that inform any
artistic practice remain open, vast and endless, with possibilities
of innovation, reformatting and shifting.; This thesis asks if
indeed, this place is located within a proximity that is very close
and readily accessible. This location would be the very impulse
that seeks to find this new realm or enthusiasm, passion and
imagination. Please keep in mind, this thesis is not blatant and
does not have an aggressive agenda, it's fluffy.
Advisors/Committee Members: Stark, Frances (Committee Chair), Hainley, Bruce (Committee Member), Tumlir, Jan (Committee Member).